How platform extensibility is transforming enterprise recruitment

Supported by partners Microsoft, Mercury recently hosted an evening insightful discussion for a group of recruitment executives centred around the theme of technology transformation.Upon arrival, guests enjoyed some peer networking and incredible views of the sun setting across the City of London skyline, before shifting to a private dining space and sitting down to a three-course dinner.Mercury CEO & Founder Chris Kendrick welcomed the group and kicked proceedings off by detailing his perspective of the current recruitment market along with some of the ways he sees how technology will continue to impact.‘The CRM is Dead’ and ‘The existing recruitment model is broken’ were a couple of provocative statements that encouraged debate.Michael Fair representing Microsoft then provided an overview of their strategy and huge investment in AI, calling out how Agentic experiences will transform the way we work and operate our businesses.This set the scene for SThree CEO Timo Lehne to take centre stage and share insights from their transformation journey with Mercury and Microsoft. Timo shared both the ‘why’ and ‘how’ along with some very open and honest takes on the challenges faced, and outcomes achieved thus far.A key challenge enterprise staffing businesses face when considering technology transformation is figuring out how to minimise disruption whilst navigating the change. Unpicking a myriad of technologies and processes combined with cultural obstacles is a daunting task. Thus, why many leaders often swerve a big call and opt for more short term and tactical fixes. SThree’s guidance from strategy thought leaders such as McKinsey and Gartner were to ‘rip it all up’ and start again. A bold move to take but one that means SThree is now a ’40 yr old business powered by start-up technology’.Guests worked their way through their starters and mains whilst taking advantage of the relaxed atmosphere and opportunity to ask Timo further questions, plus, input their own thoughts on points made around adoption, differentiation and where the ‘game changing’ technology opportunity resides.It was clear that SThree has worked incredibly hard to transform their business and technology continues to be integral in their strategy going forward.Ahead of desserts and coffees, Timo then turned the tables and encouraged others to share their situations and ambition or appetite with regards to tech transformation. In the spirit of openness many indulged, and it soon became apparent that all faced similar problems, held similar fears but, most importantly, wanted to achieve similar outcomes.As the evening ended, everyone said their goodbyes and made their way home, reflecting on the night’s key takeaways.Guests Key Takeaways“It struck me that everyone knows there are opportunities for increasing productivity using the tech, but that getting consultants to go with you on the journey is harder than everyone thinks coming into it…. the adoption of tech from consultants and actually nailing processes using tech will be the differentiator of success”.“Everyone's looking for the magic bullet but truthfully, they know that the key is not the fact we can all make use of AI tools, automation. It is where companies are prepared to adopt and embrace it… I still think the Personal AI agent will be the main gamechanger. GenAI is going to be useful for summarising, writing emails, etc but a tool that really saves you time, makes suggestions and reminders without the need for complex automation sequencing is the way forward”“Thank you Mercury for putting on an insightful evening. Listening to the others share where they are at with leveraging AI left me feeling like we need to rethink our wait and see approach… Plenty to take back and challenge my team with”.“Seems like SThree has got the best of both worlds with their Buy and Build approach and slightly envious of them connecting their data from front through to back, which is something we’re keen to achieve… How we best use AI to help our Consultants, Clients and Candidates is still very much what people seem to be trying to figure out. Great to hear from others what has and hasn’t worked. Validated some of what we have seen and thought”.Written by Stuart Johnson